Samuel Davies on the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

A day of political crosswinds blowing through America (Election Day) is also a good day to remember the birthday of Samuel Davies, born on this date in history - November 3, 1723. One of the finest preachers this country has ever produced (to quote Martyn Lloyd-Jones), we do well to consider the opening remarks of one of his most well-known sermons: “The Mediatorial Kingdom and Glories of Jesus Christ” (1756).

Kings and kingdoms are the most majestic sounds in the language of mortals, and have filled the world with noise, confusions, and blood, since mankind first left the state of nature, and formed themselves into societies. The disputes of kingdoms for superiority have set the world in arms from age to age, and destroyed or enslaved a considerable part of the human race; and the contest is not yet decided. Our country has been a region of peace and tranquillity for a long time, but it has not been because the lust of power and riches is extinct in the world, but because we had no near neighbours, whose interest might clash with ours, or who were able to disturb us. The absence of an enemy was our sole defence. But now, when the colonies of the sundry European nations on this continent begin to enlarge, and approach towards each other, the scene is changed: now encroachments, depredations, barbarities, and all the terrors of war begin to surround and alarm us. Now our country is invaded and ravaged, and bleeds in a thousand veins. We have already,* so early in the year, received alarm upon alarm: and we may expect the alarms to grow louder and louder as the season advances.

These commotions and perturbations have had one good effect upon me, and that is, they have carried away my thoughts of late into a serene and peaceful region, a region beyond the reach of confusion and violence; I mean the kingdom of the Prince of Peace. And thither, my brethren, I would also transport your minds this day, as the best refuge from this boisterous world, and the most agreeable mansion for the lovers of peace and tranquillity. I find it advantageous both to you and myself, to entertain you with those subjects that have made the deepest impression upon my own mind: and this is the reason why I choose the present subject.

There is great comfort and peace in meditating upon the knowledge that Christ is on the throne and that he rules as King in the midst of his enemies as well as friends. As Davies highlights in this sermon, the kingdom given to Christ by the Father goes beyond the essential sovereignty of the Godhead which rules over all, but it is a mediatorial kingdom, given for purposes of governing all for the good of the church.

It is the mediatorial kingdom of Christ that is here intended, not that which as God he exercises over all the works of his hands: it is that kingdom which is an empire of grace, an administration of mercy over our guilty world. It is the dispensation intended for the salvation of fallen sinners of our race by the gospel; and on this account the gospel is often called the kingdom of heaven; because its happy consequences are not confined to this earth, but appear in heaven in the highest perfection, and last through all eternity. Hence, not only the church of Christ on earth, and the dispensation of the gospel, but all the saints in heaven, and that more finished œconomy under which they are placed, are all included in the kingdom of Christ. Here his kingdom is in its infancy, but in heaven is arrived to perfection; but it is substantially the same. Though the immediate design of this kingdom is the salvation of believers of the guilty race of man, and such are its subjects in a peculiar sense; yet it extends to all worlds, to heaven, and earth, and hell. The whole universe is put under a mediatorial head; but then, as the apostle observes, he is made head over all things to his church, Eph. i. 22. that is, for the benefit and salvation of his church. As Mediator he is carrying on a glorious scheme for the recovery of man, and all parts of the universe are interested or concern themselves in this grand event; and therefore they are all subjected to him, that he may so manage them as to promote this end, and baffle and overwhelm all opposition.

What a tremendous encouragement to peace in the midst of worldly cares and, humanly-speaking, doubtful outcomes! Be sure to read the rest of Davies’ sermon (found in Vol. 1 of his sermons here). Christ is accomplishing his mediatorial purposes for the good of the church even as the nations rage and the people imagine a vain thing. May our leaders “Kiss the Son” (Ps. 2), but whether or not we see them do this, the kingdom of the Prince of Peace will endure, expand and triumph, all glory be to Christ the King!

Stuart Robinson on the 'Churchliness of Calvinism'

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

Stuart Robinson is known for his position, characteristic of the Southern Presbyterian Church, that — as John Muether has written in reviewing The Church of God as an Essential Element of the Gospel — “‘divine right’ Presbyterianism sees the church as a spiritual institution with spiritual means to accomplish spiritual ends.” The place of the church in relation to the gospel is front and center in Robinson’s thinking as is shown also by an extract from an address which he gave to the First General Presbyterian Council at Edinburgh, Scotland in July 1877 titled The Churchliness of Calvinism: Presbytery Jure Divino Its Logical Outcome (1877).

The mission of Messiah to execute the covenant of eternity was not simply to be a teaching Prophet and an atoning Priest, but a ruling King as well. His work, beside making an atonement, was not, as a Socrates, merely to enunciate certain truths and found a school, but likewise, as the result of all and the reward of all, to be a Solon, founding a community, organising a government, and administering therein as a perpetual King. Hence, therefore, the Church of God, as organised and visible, is but the actual outworking of the purpose to redeem an organised body of sinners out of the fallen race. It is therefore an essential element of the gospel theology. The foundations of the structure are laid in the very depths of the scheme of redemption; and the development, in time, of that scheme to redeem not merely individual souls, but a body of sinners organised under the Mediator, as Head and King, must of necessity develop a Church, visible and organised, as a part of the revelation to man of the counsels of eternity.

See the rest of Robinson’s address here, along with many other works by him, including newly-added issues of the newspaper he edited in Louisville, Kentucky, the Free Christian Commonwealth. He is a Presbyterian worth getting to know, and this address is representative of his passionate conviction in the important place of the Church in relation to the redemptive purpose and work of Messiah.

Joseph B. Stratton on the Kingship of Christ

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

What does it mean when the Apostle Paul says that Jesus Christ is “the head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1:22)? No Christian questions whether Christ is King over the church. But is more meant by Paul than that simple proposition? Joseph Buck Stratton answers in a sermon preached on December 27, 1857 entitled “The Kingship of Christ” (A Pastor’s Valedictory: A Selection of Early Sermons (1899), pp. 20-21).

But the Scriptures teach much more than that Christ reigns in his church. He reigns also for the church. He is King in regard to whatsoever concerns the church. He commands and controls whatsoever can affect the church. Thus he is said to be "head over all things to the church." The world, out of which the church is gathered, and in which it exists, is not independent of his dominion, and is under his regimen, for the sake of the church. It does not tolerate the church, but it is tolerated on account of the church. It was made for Christ's kingdom; it is preserved in order to the completion of his kingdom; and when it is needed no more for his kingdom's sake, it will exist no more. And while it stands, it has no power in an atom of it to move against his consent, or his bidding, and is working together in all its parts for the accomplishment of his mediatorial purposes, and for good to them that love God and are the called according to his purpose. Hence his promise in regard to the church "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

And so he is king in regard to whatsoever is connected with the mission end of the church; "I am with you always," he said to his apostles when he gave them the charge to go and make disciples of all nations; and this word, "I am with you always," dwelling as it does as an ever living promise in the bosom of the church, is a security that his kingship is ever co-operating with the church. He is reigning over the world and in the world, for the furtherance of the work of the church. Just as he is said to have been in the church of old "in the wilderness," and just as he opened the sea, and made the rock gush with water, and the heavens rain down manna, and the walls of hostile cities fall to the ground, and the hearts of brave armies quail before the terror of his presence; for their deliverance and their triumph, so still, he is in the midst of the Sacramental host of his elect. And though their wanderings may seem long, and their victory and their inheritance seem to tarry strangely in their coming, yet, as surely as Israel reached the promised land, Christ, the King, in the greatness of his strength will travel with his church, till he and she together shall cross the last entrenchment of the enemy, and trample the ruins of the last stronghold of Satan beneath their feet. Such then, is his kingdom, the church; and the world so far as it is regarded as the scene and the subject of the church's operation.

This doctrine of the mediatorial kingship of Christ over all things for the good of his church, as taught by Paul and expounded upon here by Stratton, is a great comfort to believers in the midst of a hostile world. Christ has been appointed king for purposes that not only give glory to God but will do his people good not only by ruling and defending us, but also, in the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “restraining and conquering all his and our enemies” (Q/A 26). “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18), he says. In his mediatorial office of King, the scope of his dominion is universal, and thus, he reigns over all and the victory over all belongs to him - praise to our King!

The kingdom of Christ will live forever! - Samuel Miller

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

It was on September 29, 1813, that Dr. Samuel Miller was inaugurated as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government at Princeton Theological Seminary. His inaugural discourse was never published, but it was summarized briefly by his son in The Life of Samuel Miller, Vol. 1 (pp. 358-359).

That address was known as a Sketch of the Characters and Opinions of Some of the More Conspicuous Witnesses for the Truth During the Dark Ages. Perhaps one day this discourse, which resides in manuscript form at the Princeton Theological Seminary Archives, and which needs further editing, as Miller himself acknowledged in a letter, will be published after all. We are given a taste to whet our appetite for it with these powerful lines as recorded by Dr. Miller’s son:

Paul is no more! Claudius is no more! Wickliffe, Luther, Calvin, are gone! But the kingdom of Christ did not die with them! It still lives; and it will live forever!

His son observes that we are hereby taught not to despair or be discouraged, even in troublous and perilous times. God has his faithful witnesses even in the darkest of periods, but whether times are good or bad, his kingdom endures through all. Jesus Christ reigns in both the midst of his enemies as well as his willing subjects (Psalm 110:1-3). Faithful witnesses we must be in whatever age of history we are called to serve, yet we are but servants of the Most High King, and the kingdom we serve will never disappear from the earth, but rather, as Miller himself once later preached in 1835, “the earth will be filled by the glory of God!”